Hello Sun and Sun-Courier readers

As I write this I find myself reminiscent of my 20’s, which is the age I was when I last wrote an editorial for or in this area. Without giving my current age away, let’s just say it’s been awhile. Before, I was married with no children. Now, I’m married with two grown children. That being said, I am extremely excited to be back into a news reporting role here in the Enterprise-Daleville-Fort Rucker areas and look forward to seeing and learning what’s going on in our beloved Wiregrass.

Beginning my position as a staff writer Oct. 2, I am just getting my “feet wet” as they say. If you haven’t seen me out and about, you will and if you have, then it was nice to see you! I very much look forward to meeting more of you and covering community happenings, city and county governments in Daleville/Dale County as well as the activities at Fort Rucker. It is my intent to be thorough in my coverage and excellent in my writing of your stories about your communities.

Many have asked me where I’ve been these last several years so I will answer that here. After several years in news reporting for daily newspapers in south Alabama, I adventured into the work of financial social services with the state of Alabama. After that, I taught a variety of grade levels in private schools – pre-school through third grades. All through both of those careers journalism was not far away from me. I stayed busy editing yearbooks, advising teen journalists, working public relations for the schools, etc. Later, I worked about three years as a marketing director for an area corporation.

During my marketing career my personal life became very complicated. I will share just a short bit. In June 2010 my husband of 31 years was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), aka Lou Gehrig’s disease. Our lives instantly changed. I left my teaching job and went home to care for my husband who was told he had two to five years to live.

Stunned. That’s what the diagnosis did to us. It stunned us, stopping my husband’s career as an avionics technician at Fort Rucker almost immediately and forcing me to work from home for the most part – my boss at the time allowed me to complete almost all of my work via computer from my home. During the first three years after the diagnosis I wrote an online blog titled “A Day in the Life of a Real ALS Family” which has now been converted into a book, “How ALS Changed Everything – Learning to Keep On Keepin’ On”, which is now available on Amazon and Kindle. So journalism was even close at hand during those years. However, never did I think I would return to newspaper work, but I am so glad I have!

I am happy to say my husband has passed his five-year mark and is still fighting ALS . He does live in Enterprise Health and Rehabilitation Center (EHR), as his care became too difficult to manage at home. EHR has provided excellent care for the last two-plus years and because of that I am able to return to work full-time. I hope to be here at The Sun for many years to come.

If you have something you would like to see covered for the newspaper in the Daleville/Fort Rucker/Newton/Clayhatchee areas, please feel free to email me the information or give me a call at the office, (334) 393-2969.

Until next time, Happy Fall Ya’ll! I’m glad to be back!

Jan Murray is a staff writer for The Southeast Sun and Daleville Sun-Courier. The opinions of this writer are her own and not the opinion of the paper. She can be reached at (334) 393-2969 or by email at [email protected].